Remnant of the Dead
by ShadowK54
Summary: AU. No one could have prepared the world of Remnant for the kind of evil that was about to invade and tear apart humanity. Literally. Are Jaune and his friends gonna be able to survive this dark and seemingly hopeless world? Only time can answer that question. Jaune X Harem.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its anything. It all belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum!**

 **Prologue**

' _It all just happened out of nowhere.. without a warning.. without even a known cause.. what started out as a day of celebration that felt like nothing could possibly go wrong.. turned into absolute hell on Remnant in just the blink of an eye.. There's no way we could have prepared for this kind of shit show.._ '

"Please man, don't make me fucking do this!"

"W.. What the h-hell.."

"Oh my god..! Suuun!"

"W-Why does he look like that..?!"

"Rrrragh!"

"J-Jaune, you got to do it now!"

"St-Stop this already! GODDAMNIT NEPTUUUNE!"

 _Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence after the loud bangs of what sounded like four gunshots coming from a pistol, followed by terrified female screams and something heavy falling onto the wooden floor echoed from within the Arc residence.

"Ha.. Ha.. H-Ha.." Standing by the living room entryway, sweating and breathing heavily with a horrified expression on his face was none other than Jaune Arc. In his trembling hands and aimed forward in front of him was a black Glock 17 Gen4 Pistol that had smoke emitting from the barrel due the weapon just being fired.

Also present in the living room with him and appearing to be in the same state as the blonde boy was Pyrrha, Yang, Ruby, Ren and Nora. Nora was in the process of helping Ren back up to his feet as it looked like he had just suffered the pain of being tossed aside with brute strength judging from the large dent in one of the walls behind them. The crying and fear stricken Ruby was hiding behind her older sister Yang while whimpering and peaking out from beside her. The mentioned blonde girl had one shaking arm slightly sticking out beside her as she had just pulled her little sister behind her for herself to act as a shield for Ruby, though she was not crying, her shock and horror was still visible. Meanwhile, Pyrrha had her hands covering her mouth as tears were rolling out of her widened green eyes.

Everyone that was present in the living room area... or at least those that are present and still alive that is, were currently gazing at the bloodied corpses of two of their closest friends, Sun and Neptune. Sun, who had a large chunk of his flesh ripped out of one side of his neck, was lying on the ground sprawled out on his back over the bloody and shattered glass of Jaune's living room table, and Neptune was laying in a thick pool of his own blood on his front with his face planted on the ground and his body was sprawled out as well.

Neptune did not appear to look normal, not in the slightest. From what they can see now, his skin complexion was a deathly pale shade, and pure black veins were bulging and throbbing at the sides of his head. The others were absolutely certain that those specific details were not on him ten minutes ago.

"I.. I had.. h-had to do it.." Jaune whispered as he began to slowly descend onto his knees and his hands also began to lower the pistol. "D-Damnit, why did you make me do it Neptune!? What the hell has gotten into you?! W-Why.." The blonde boy's own waterworks were beginning to come, putting the safety on before he placed the gun down on the floor by his right knee. "Aaah!" He suddenly cried out as he then suddenly slammed the side of his left fist down onto the floor, and his breathing became more rough. His teeth were gritted as he fought back against the pain he received from his strike and the immense stress of what had just happened began to take a toll on him. "W-What the hell.."

Kneeling down beside the blonde boy was Pyrrha as she had snapped out of her state of shock when Jaune had his sudden outburst, now trying to comfort the one who just had to make most likely one of the hardest and stressful decisions of his life. Putting down one of his friends. "Y-You had no choice Jaune." The redhead uttered before she sniffled and wiped her tears away with her left hand while her right hand was gently rubbing at Jaune's back, trying to compose herself now. "If you had not done what you did.. H-He would have.. did the same thing to all of us. You saved us Jaune." She finished as she then fought through the emotional and psychological pain to give the blonde boy a small, but comforting smile.

Jaune looked to the redhead beside him silently for a few seconds, letting her words process through his mind as to understand that what he had done was for the good reasons.. though he still did not like it, not even a little bit. He gulped as he nodded while closing his eyes, starting to pull himself together by taking a deep breath before he began to get back up to stand. "R-Right.." Though it felt like he could barely stand as he was feeling weak in the legs and the lower limbs wavered.

The leg motions did not go unnoticed by Pyrrha as she aided him in keeping him standing. "Easy, easy.." She softly instructed him.

With Nora and Ren, the orange haired girl had just got the black with pink haired boy to stand up after taking it steady, one hand bringing one of his arms over her shoulders and the other gently held onto his chest. "Are you okay?" Nora questioned as she looked to her childhood friend with a anxious expression.

Ren groaned softly as he still felt some pain pulsing in his back from what had just happened to him, but other than that, he knew he would live. "Yeah, I'm fine Nora, thank you." He nodded to her with a reassuring smile, which had Nora immediately relieved as she let out a soft sigh and a nod a few seconds after. With that, the two began to make their short trip to huddle with their other living friends in the room.

"What the hell just happened?!" Yang uttered in bewilderment and frustration as she ran her right hand through her thick golden locks on her head, her sights not leaving the two bodies that were near them.

"N-Neptune.. k-k-killed S-Sun.." Ruby quivered in fear behind her blonde sister as she clung to her back.

"H-He didn't look like that just a few minutes ago, did he?" Nora questioned in genuine confusion as her and Ren had walked up beside the two sisters, the orange haired girl beginning to wonder if her memory was beginning to betray her.

"No, definitely not." Ren answered softly as he looked down towards Neptune's abnormal looking corpse with narrowed eyes. ' _He wasn't the Neptune we all knew.. What changed him to this.. abomination..? So quickly as well._ ' He began to wonder, then gulping as a very bad feeling was now starting to settle within him the more he began to dwell on the question. ' _Something's going on here.. Something big... and disastrous.. I can feel it.._ '

Finally gathering his bearings, Jaune took another deep breath when he had got back on his feet, then he knelt down for a second to pick up the Glock he forgot to grab off the floor before holstering it under the back side of his jeans, as much as he did not want to, he had a strong feeling that he was gonna need it again.. for obvious reasons to him. His stomach turned when he looked back to the bodies of his friends, struggling to maintain a calm demeanor as he felt like he was just a second away from vomiting up the contents of his stomach, but he managed to hold it together with the help of another deep breath.

"Are you gonna be alright, Jaune..?" She asked with worry, but with caution as well, not wanting to cause another outburst to come from him if she was not careful with her tone.

Jaune was silent for a moment before he then let out a deep sigh and shook his head in denial to the question, after what he just had to go through, it was gonna be awhile before he was to be alright. "N-No.. I'm far from it Pyrrha.." He replied in a soft whisper, the response causing the redhead to frown as she looked down to the floor with a guilt stricken look.

' _Yeah, of course he wouldn't be okay.._ ' She thought to herself before speaking with words to respond to her blonde friend. "I-I'm sorry, that was.. ridiculous of me to ask something like that.." She uttered apologetically.

Jaune then put a hand on her shoulder, which immediately had Pyrrha looking up at him with a surprised gaze when she saw him giving her some hint of a smile as he then hummed while shaking his head. "It's okay, I honestly would have asked the same thing.." He responded in hopes of putting her worries at ease. "I appreciate the concern." His words working as the redhead began to look at him more calmly.

Ren then did something that had surprised everyone in the room, he began to walk towards the two bloody bodies with a curious look on his face after he had lifted his arm off from over Nora's shoulder, the black with pink haired boy now able to walk well enough on his own at this point.

"W-What are you doing, Ren?" The young Valkyrie questioned nervously, shaking her head slightly in a baffled manner as she looked to him.

Ren raised a hand slightly to put herself at ease while keeping his eyes still set on the bodies. "I'll be fine, don't worry Nora.." He responded, now biting down on his lower lip when feeling himself step onto the blood around Neptune's corpse, the thick red liquid coating his socks and feet. ' _Damn.. Did not think about this.._ ' Seeing as how it was too late to try and back up now. He took a deep breath and continued on.

"C-Careful Ren.." Ruby warned as she peeked around her blonde older sister. Ren now bending his knees forward to get himself into a crouching position.

Now being the cautious one that he was and not wanting one of his best friends to be close to the possible potential threat, Jaune brought his hand down from Pyrrha's shoulder before he reached behind him to carefully pull the pistol back out and held it in front of him with both hands, then taking off the safety and he was now at the ready in case there were any other 'surprises' waiting to pop out on them.

Knowing what he had to do, Pyrrha did not object against his action as she remained silent and allowed him to walk over to join Ren. Though she was uneasy about that decision.

How Ren had the courage and stomach strength to try and approach the bodies, Jaune, nor the girls, had no idea. But they knew he was always the calm and composed one out of their group of friends.

When hearing Jaune approach, Ren looked at the young Arc for a moment with a slightly confused gaze, blinking a few times before lifting a brow slightly when seeing Jaune aiming the gun down towards Neptune's body.

Jaune knew that whatever Neptune was just a few minutes ago, it was not him. It was not his friend, their friend. Whatever he had just shot, was nothing more than a monster. A monster that had so eagerly killed their monkey faunus friend without even a hint of hesitation. So he knew what would need to be done in order to protect the rest of his beloved friends from suffering the same fate as Sun. His hands sweated and were visibly shaking a little bit, but he managed to keep himself composed and would go through the deed. Even though he hated to do so, but what choice did he have?

"Are you sure you are up for this Jaune?" Ren questioned out of concern to the Arc boy, the emotion evident on his expression as he awaited his answer.

Jaune let out a trembled breath as he closed his eyes for a brief moment to do so. But put on a brave face when looking back to his black haired friend, nodding confidently as he aimed the gun towards Neptune's head. "Yeah, just.. be careful, alright?" He urged anxiously.

"Of course." Understanding the demand, Ren nodded back to him before looking back to the dead blue haired boy, at least this hideous version of him. Even though his exterior made him look like he had it all together. On the interior, he was afraid, very afraid. He was just always skilled at hiding the emotions that would worry his friends. Even with a situation like this, he was surprised with himself that he was holding it together at this point, but he was well aware that his curiousity was overpowering that fear.

Taking another deep breath, Ren reached to begin pushing the corpse to roll it over onto its back, Jaune, as well as the girls, tensed and Jaune gripped onto the gun tightly when hearing the sounds of the blood squelching when the body was being moved, holding back an intense cringe as the sound was absolutely sickening to him, though the same cannot be said for the girls as they allowed the disgusted facial expression to show. But he powered through it and he continued to keep an eye on for any sign of movement the corpse may make, thankfully, he saw none.

After rolling the corpse onto its back, Ren began to examine it. Being cautious as he did though. "My god.." He uttered in a shocked whisper upon seeing Neptune's face as his eyes were widened and pressed a curled index finger against his lips.

When Jaune saw the facial features, he too looked down at the corpse in shock as he let out a sharp gasp. Once again, he was feeling the urge to vomit at such a gruesome display, but he still managed to keep it together. The sight making it certain to him now that this was not the Neptune he knew. This was indeed a horrible monster that had taken full possession over his body and completely changed it.. and he had a dreadful feeling that Neptune was not the only one to suffer such a horrid fate. ' _Weiss is really not gonna like this.._ ' He thought to himself nervously as he quietly gulped.

What were once dark blue eyes, were now a dark, crimson red. What were once healthy, sparkling white teeth, were now suddenly rotten, decaying and covered in blood with some bits of flesh, Sun's flesh, stuck between the teeth and in its gaping mouth. When looking past all of the blood, more of the bulging black veins were on different areas of the face. There were three bullet holes visible on the corpse's chest and one right at the center of the forehead, the bullet holes being the sources of the blood that was making the small pool of the liquid on the floor.

' _But.. let's go back a little to before all this crazy shit happened.._ '

 **Hehe, once again, tearing myself apart even more by making myself work on another story. Haaa.. Man, I'm dumb. But I just couldn't help it, been wanting to work on a zombie apocalypse fic for awhile now and just thought this series would be a good way to go about it. In a normal world AU of it, of course. So there will be no semblences, no aura, no awesome transforming weapons, sadly, and no crazy, superhuman like abilities. Cuz that would all just make surviving too easy in my opinion. Though, there will be dark magic involved and faunus will be a thing, because they're awesome. So I hope the prologue was interesting enough! With a genre like this, expect dark themes, coarse language, blood/gore and lemons. So I'm warning you now about it! Anyway, Thank you kindly for reading!**

 **Jaune's Harem:**

 **\- Ruby Rose**

 **\- Pyrrha Nikos**

 **\- Yang Xiao Long**

 **\- Neopolitan**

 **\- Weiss Schnee**

 **\- Blake Belladonna**

 **Gonna add just a few more girls at some points, these are just the ones I'm certain of. So this isn't the final list, because I'm dumb like that. The maxium will be 9, I'm certain of that as well. Want to keep away from the double digits. Alrighty, all I got to say for now! Again, thanks for reading!**

 **Follow, Favourite and Review if you would be so kind!**

 **Until next chapter, deuces!**


	2. Ill Prepared For The End

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its anything. It all belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum!**

 **Chapter 1: Ill Prepared For The End**

* * *

' _It was Saturday._ _You see, I had just turned eighteen years old a few days ago on Wednesday. I had already spent my actual birthday with my family then, but I wanted the opportunity to spend one of the early days of my eighteen years on this world with just me and my closest friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my family to death. But a part of me wanted a day where it was just me and my friends. You know, typical teen wants and needs. Well, it just so happens that luck, and my father, was on my side this weekend. My dad, who was a well respected police sergeant in the VPD, or the Vale Police Department, who taught me how to fire a 9mm when I was twelve, he was awesome in a lot of ways, decided to take my mother and my sisters on a little vacation to Atlas for a few days, and also to visit grandpa_ _yesterday so that I can have my opportunity, it would not be the first time I was left alone to take care of the house for a few days. I was smart, I knew the necessary precautions to take when it comes to staying in a large house such as mine alone. Doors and windows always locked, as well as a locked and loaded glock waiting under my mattress, and my cell always at the ready to call one of my dad's friends on the force that also lived in my suburban neighbourhood in case anyone was stupid enough to break into my home. Not to toot my own my horn, but I was a pretty great shot with a gun, just runs in Arc blood I suppose. My dad took me to get my firearms licence as his birthday present to me when I did turn eighteen. With the training he gave me and my sisters when we would go out hunting while growing up, my older sisters and I were able to pass the test with flying colors when our own individual times came. So now I was allowed to have a pistol on me just in case of emergencies, at least inside of my home. Like I said, my dad is awesome. *sigh* But after today though.. if the infection hasn't already hit Atlas.. I can only pray that my family is alright.. Me and my dad aren't the only ones who know how to fight and shoot a gun in this family after all. Heheh.. Please.. Please let them be okay.._ '

"Alright, it looks like we got almost everything out. Now we just got to wait for Nora and Ren to get here with the pizzas any minute now and then we're all set for the party. I have a feeling this is gonna be a good one." Said Jaune with a chipper tone of voice as he had just finished setting out a few bags of potato chips into three different large glass bowls set out over his rather large dining room table, as it had ten seats in total, there were four on each side and one on each end, along side those bowls of chips were a few large bottles of soda that consisted of different flavors and a stack of red plastic party cups.

Sitting on a few of the chairs of the dining room table were Ruby, Yang and Pyrrha. The blonde girl picking up a single potato chip out of closest bowl to her before putting it between her teeth and chewed on it with a satisfied expression. The redhead was beginning to pour herself a cup of iced tea after taking one of them from the stack. Meanwhile, the young Rose was looking up at the blonde male with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "Aren't you forgetting one thing on the menu there Jaune?" She questioned in a giddy tone as one of her legs was rapidly moving up and down out of excitement.

The young Arc looked at Ruby with a confused gaze as his head slightly cocked to the side. "What do you mean?" Then it came back to him. "Oh right, right. Hold on a sec. Can't believe I almost forgot about them." With that, he turned around to walk away from the dining table and went to the kitchen area to get to the oven.

Upon opening the oven, there was a large tray of chocolate chip cookies, Ruby's favourite, that were well baked and ready to be taken out waiting inside the oven.

Jaune gave a content smile when he took in the heavenly aroma of the baked good. "Perfect." He uttered in a whisper to himself before he moved to the kitchen island behind him to pick up, then put on the pair of oven mitts that were resting on the kitchen structure and he began to take out the tray of cookies.

"But you know what would really make this a even better party?" The buxom blonde girl suddenly questioned with a sly voice and a slight grin as she was looking over at the blonde boy.

The question immediately made Jaune's eyes roll and let out a soft groan of frustration as he leaned forward slightly to take out the cookies. "Oh god, not this again. Yang, we have already gone over this. There will be no alcohol allowed to this party." He then placed the tray of cookies down on the ceramic stove top that was set up on the kitchen island before he took off the oven mitts and set them down on the island beside the stove top. "I was lucky enough that my mom even allowed me to have this pizza party without her being present in the first place. If either of my parents ever found out that I allowed alcohol to be thrown into the mix, they would never let me see the light of day again. Plus, your little sister is here. Wouldn't that make you a bad influence if you got wasted in front of her?" He finished with complaint in his tone as he was now giving Yang a stern look and a quirked eyebrow.

Not paying the conversation between Jaune and her older sister any mind, or really any bit of attention for that matter, the young Rose quickly bolted her way over to sit down on one of the rotating stools of the kitchen island on the opposite side where Jaune was when the wondrous scent of the baked goods hit her nostrils. She softly squealed as she landed on the stool while it did a single steady spin, stars then shined brightly in her eyes as she had a ecstatic grin curved onto her lips when eyeing the delicious treats in front of her. "Oooh yeah, come to mama." She whispered to herself as she began to slowly reach over the island to grab one of the treats, the black with red haired girl was now a few seconds away from drooling all over the island counter as her mouth began to water.

Pyrrha gave off a soft giggle at Jaune's last comment as she held a lightly clenched fist in front of her mouth for a second. "He does bring up a good point." The redhead commented before she took a sip of her iced tea.

Yang held up her hands by her shoulders in a defensive manner as she pouted at the blonde boy for bringing up that point. Now feeling incredibly embarassed as the thought had not come to her mind up until now. "Hey, hey, I never said I was gonna get _that_.. y'know." She replied in a flustered voice.

Jaune softly chuckled as he shook his head with a slight grin, then he thought of something that could help his fellow blonde feel better, and he knew for sure that this would help in having her enjoy herself a little bit more while she was over. "Alright look, how 'bout this. I'll head on out later to get you the ingredient to make those strawberry sunrises you love oh so much." He cocked his head slightly to the side while he lifted a brow and smirked after saying his proposal. "I guess I can allow only that much since it really doesn't get you all that buzzed, but you still enjoy it. So how does that sound?"

Yang's embarrassment was quick to fade away and her expression immediately brightened as a excited grin of her own flashed on her lips. At the mention of her favourite 'special' beverage, she had no chance in trying to hide her excitement. "Yes, please!"

"Okay, but later on though." Said Jaune after he let out a scoff out of amusement. When he looked down towards the cookies in front of him. His eyes widened in surprise and he blinked a few times in confusion when he noticed that over half of the baked treats were already gone from the tray, crumbs being left in their places.

When the sound of crunching hit his ears, he looked up slightly at the young Rose on the other side of the island who was softly moaning in content as she held up one of the cookies in her right hand and the cookie had a bite on it that took out over half of the treat. There were crumbs littered around the black with red haired girl's lips and her cheeks were puffed because of the large bit she had taken out and was currently chewing on.

Ruby then suddenly froze, her eyes widened and she let out a soft mewl when she had caught Jaune looking at her with a lifted brow and a slight grin. The two now having an awkward staredown with each other for a few seconds before Ruby began to slowly eat the rest of the baked treat, licking off the remaining crumbs that stuck to her fingers.

"Enjoying yourself there, Ruby?" The blonde boy questioned as he held in a laugh when the young Rose had a faint blush appear on her cheeks as she looked down slightly in a shameful, yet cute manner as she nodded, the crunching of her chewing still audible as she did so.

After a few more seconds, she swallowed her treat before letting out a nervous giggle and she bashfully rubbed the back of her head. "Uh.. I'm sorry?" She uttered apologetically.

Jaune scoffed as he shook his head and then he gently pushed up the rest of the cookies towards her before he gestured at them with one of his hands. "Nah, it's fine, knock yourself out, I will make some more in just a little bit. But, just make sure that you.." He reached to a roll of paper towel that was on the island right by her, taking off a couple of the connected soft sheets before he reached up towards her over the counter.

The young Rose tensed up and she released a soft squeak as her face erupted into a dark blush when the blonde male was now dabbing and softly wiping around her lips at the crumbs that she had failed to notice on that part of her, brushing them off gently. "try not to make too big of a mess, hmm?" He requested with a soft smile as he finished, crumpling up the paper towel sheets before he went to throw them into the small silver cylinder trash bin right by the counter.

"Y-You got it. Sorry about that." Ruby responded as her fingers fidgeted together on her lap and she was looking down towards them with her face still flushed. Even though she appeared flustered about it, the young Rose really did not mind being kind of babied by Jaune. Due to the risk of embarrassment, she would never admit this to anyone, but she looked up to the blonde boy as the big brother she never had. It was not like she had a problem with having a big sister, she loved Yang, and she did not know what she would do if she were to ever lose her. But there was just something about having a older brother that felt especially pleasant and fulfilling to her. Like a piece of her has been put into place.

When knowing that he was already a big brother to four younger sisters, having seven sisters in total, she doubted that Jaune would look at her as one of them, but she would not let that change on how she sees him, she was keeping it a secret from everyone after all. Plus, she was content with how he treated her now, it was more than close enough to being a caring elder brother in her personal opinion.

Jaune reached into his right pants pocket to take out his cell phone, he then softly huffed after he had unlocked the device as he was expecting a text from either Ren or Nora to update them on their current location, but there was nothing to be seen in his messages. "Hey Pyrrha? Did you get any word from Ren or Nora? They should be here by now.." The blonde boy looked up towards the dining table at the mentioned redhead as he called out to her with a curious look on his face.

When hearing the blonde boy, Pyrrha looked up from the furniture magazine she was scanning through that just so happened to be sitting at the center of the table and set her sights on Jaune. "Oh, uh.. hold on let me see.." She then reached into one of the back pockets of her jeans to fetch out her own cell phone, when seeing there were no messages from either two of their friends. She shook her head after looking back over at the young Arc. "No, they did not say anything to me either. Do you want me to give them a call to check on them?" She proposed.

Jaune sighed as he shook his head in denial before he responded to the redhead. "No, don't worry about it. I'll call 'em up." He took that responsibility upon himself as he now went onto Ren's contact before pressing one more time on the device and bringing it up to his ear. Pyrrha simply nodded as she put her phone back where she had taken it out.

"So did Weiss or Blake say anything on when they were gonna be here?" Pyrrha asked Yang when steering her attention over to the female blonde in the room. The mentioned female blonde having just finished taking a sip of a cup of orange soda she had just poured herself before answering her red haired friend.

"Yeah, they both said that they were gonna be a little bit late to get here, they both have some things they got to deal with first before making their way over." Yang responded before taking another quick sip of her drink.

"I see. Is there anything we should be worrying about?" Pyrrha questioned once more out of genuine concern for her friends, she did not know why, but.. she could not help but feel that something worrisome was preventing the two currently absent girls from coming.

Yang smiled as she shook her head in denial to the question while waving her right hand in front of her face in a dismissive manner. "Nah, they'll be fine. Or, at least that's what they said. Weiss just has to finish up some homework, and Blake.. well, she said that her dad had suddenly fallen ill a couple hours ago. So, she's taking care of him until her mom gets back from work." The thick haired blonde explained.

Pyrrha slightly frowned at the situation with Blake and her father, already feeling sorry for Ghira upon hearing about his condition. "Ah, that's too bad. I hope he gets better soon.." The redhead softly uttered as she then looked down to the drink in her hands on the table, looking into the dark liquid with a worried gaze. ' _Why do I feel so.. anxious all of a sudden..?_ ' She internally questioned the emotion that was consuming her.

Jaune waited patiently for about half a minute of the phone ringing when calling Ren before he had finally answered the call.

"Lie Ren speaking." The familiar monotone voice of Ren was heard the moment the call made to him was answered. He then suddenly sighed before speaking up again to someone else that was with him. Judging by the name that was said, it was someone all too familiar to Jaune and the group. "Nora, please stop trying to eat the pizzas, just wait a few more minutes, we are almost there."

"But I'm hungryy!" Nora was heard roaring out of irritation in response on Ren's side of the call, causing Jaune to flinch and tilt his head to the side away from the cell phone before sweat dropping and letting out a nervous chuckle.

' _Same old Nora._ ' Jaune thought to himself as he awkwardly grinned, then bringing the phone back close to his right ear after the orange haired girl's sudden outburst had ended. "Hey Ren, where you guys up to?" He asked as he moved to lean back against the kitchen island, bringing his left hand to hold onto the edge of the counter by his hip.

"We are just driving down your neighbourhood now. Apologies for our being late, Jaune. There was quite a bit of intense traffic over by the hospital, and we didn't have a opportunity to take an alternate route, so we had to wait it out." Ren calmly explained.

Jaune's eyes narrowed curiously upon hearing about the traffic, tempted to question what was going with that. But he shrugged off the issue as that was not really important to him right now. "Okay, was just calling to make sure. We were starting to get a bit worried when we weren't hearing from you."

Ren chuckled softly before responding. "I'm sorry we worried you, but I promise we're fine. Okay, we are just about to pull into your driveway now. See you in a minute."

"Alright, see ya in a bit." And with that, the two boys ended the call there and Jaune leaned off the counter as he put his cell phone back into his pocket.

"What did they say? Are they alright?" Ruby asked after having just finished eating another one of the cookies with ease this time.

"They're okay. Just had a traffic problem for awhile on their way over." He walked over to the window that had a view of the driveway from the kitchen, smiling when he saw Ren's car pulling in and parking before turning it off, seeing Nora move with haste to get out of the vehicle from the front passenger side while holding five large pizza boxes in her arms with ease, while Ren was coming out of the driver side door and was locking the door as he made his way around the vehicle. "And there they are." He then blinked in surprise when seeing that Neptune was coming out of one of the backseat doors. "And also Neptune is with them.. Huh, I thought his mom was gonna drop him off." He whispered the last bit to himself.

Jaune shrugged it off for now as he made his way out of the kitchen and to the front door to unlock it and let them in.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room and watching the tv with his leg crossed was the monkey faunus of the group of friends, Sun. He was using the tip of his tail to press on the remote that was beside him to surf through channels.

Jaune had immediately unlocked and opened the door after Ren had knocked on it a couple times, the blonde boy giving a kind smile when coming face to face with the three outside. "Well, it's about time, the craving was really starting to get to us." He said as a joke before he stepped out of the way while holding the door open for them. "Come on in."

Nora was the first one to enter the house, taking a moment to give the young Arc a quick hug with her right arm as the left arm held the pizzas by her side. "Hey Jauney! Alright, I know the birthday hug is a little late." She then pulled away and looked up at him before continuing. "But hey, better late than never, right?" She said with a grin.

Jaune chuckled as after he had gave her a one armed hug back and shrugged. "I can't argue with that. I'm just glad you aren't giving me the birthday beatings." Before she was about to squeal out of excitement when her face brightened at what she thought was a fun idea, the blonde shook his head while holding his hand up by his chest. "That wasn't a suggestion, so don't you even." He warned, which caused the young Valkyrie to slouch and pout at Jaune.

"Aww, you're no fun." The orange haired girl complained as she began to stomp off towards the kitchen to join the other girls that were already present and put the pizzas down on the dining table.

Jaune scoffed with a slight grin at the complaint as he let her walk off. "I'm so sorry for caring about my health and well-being." He retorted playfully, which caused Nora to blow raspberries at him.

"Come on in guys." He welcomed Ren and Neptune in after finishing his coversation with Nora. "I thought your mom was the one dropping you off Neptune. Is she okay?" He asked curiously as he shutted the door after the two entered. As per usual, he locked it afterwards.

"Yeah, she's fine. It's just that the hospital called all of a sudden and said she had to go into work today." The blue haired boy answered with a sigh as he was kneeling to undo his shoelaces. "Apparently, there's some kind of flu or something going around and patients are going in like a flood. So the hospital needed every bit of staff they can get, even on their days off." He then thumb pointed over at Ren. "I was walking from the hospital, since that was the closest my mom could get me, then Ren and Nora just happened to be passing by and picked me up on their way over. Thanks for that by the way man." Neptune said as he looked to greet and gave him a nod.

Ren shook his head as he was putting his shoes together and putting them on the shoe rack by the door. "It's no problem. That is what friends are for after all." He said with a kind smile as he began to make his way to the kitchen.

"I see.." Jaune said in a blank tone, his attention was already on something else entirely. His eyes narrowed out of curiosity when looking down at Neptune's left hand while he was putting his own pair of shoes on the shoe rack.

There was what looked to be a fresh bite mark that had only broken through Neptune's flesh slightly by the areas where someone's canine teeth would be.

' _How did that happen?_ ' The blonde thought as he continued to eye the bite mark for a few more quiet seconds before Neptune broke him out of his trance.

"So hey, did Weiss make it here yet? She hasn't been messaging me back when I asked her earlier." The blue haired boy asked as he looked over at Jaune.

"Wha.. Oh no, not yet. She told Yang that she wanted to finish up some homework first before making her way over." Jaune responded as he shook his head and gave off a soft chuckle. "Just Weiss being Weiss there, huh?" He said humorously. Both of them thinking that the bluenette must have asked a little later than Yang did and she had her phone turned off by now to prevent it from being a distraction.

Neptune was not able to hold back a chuckle of his own after hearing that comment, as he knew that was all too true knowing how his girlfriend was. "Yeah, definitely sounds like her." He said with a grin.

Both of the boys attention were then simultaneously steered over towards the living room when they heard the monkey faunus begin to make his presence known to his newly arrived buddy. "Aye, Neptune, about time you got here." Sun greeted from the couch as he leaned his head back over the top edge to look back at the blonde and blue haired boy.

Neptune looked to Jaune as he cocked his head towards Sun. "Mind if I..?"

Though he was reluctant to do it due to him being curious about the bite mark, the young Arc decided to let it go and allowed him to go to the one who he was undeniably closer to. "Yeah, go for it. I got to get started on the next batch of cookies anyway, Ruby isn't gonna wait forever. Enjoy." He said with a smile as he was the first one to depart and he went back to the kitchen to regroup with Ren and the girls after giving the blue haired boy a light pat on the back.

After walking away from each other, Neptune came into the living room and went to sit down next to Sun on the couch. He let out a soft groan of relief when he seated himself, letting his head hang back against the top of the couch when he leaned back and brought the back of his right wrist against his forehead.

Sun looked at his best friend with concern as he narrowed his eyes, his tail wrapping around the remote beside him before lifting it up and the tip pressed on the button that turned down the volume to the tv, putting it to where the sound was barely audible before placing the remote on the living room table in front of them. "Hey dude, you alright?" After not receiving a response from the blue haired boy for a few seconds as he only continued to keep his current position, Sun became even more worried as he pressed on the matter. "Yo, Neptune?" He called out to him as he gave him a light nudge, which worked on getting his attention quickly.

"W-Wha.." Neptune exclaimed as he jolted back to reality and pulled his arm slightly away from his head, his face now looking close to a deathly pale shade and sweating a little bit, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot, which caused the monkey faunus to quickly become confused as he blinked a few times in bewilderment. He could have swore that he looked normal enough just a few seconds ago.. "O-Oh hey, sorry.. I'm just.. suddenly feeling a little under the weather.." He said with a weak chuckle as he then leaned forward to rest his elbows on his thighs and he lightly held his head with his left hand while he faced down.

"A little? Dude, you look like a zombie right now, Why didn't you tell us you were sick? I'm sure Jaune would've understood if you couldn't make it." The blonde monkey faunus spoke up in complaint as he got into the same position as Neptune, excluding the touching of his head, and lightly held onto Neptune's closest shoulder and cocked his head slightly to the side to get a better look at the ill looking boy.

Neptune let out a weak groan as he gently rubbed his palm against the side of his forehead while cringing slightly. "Yeah, I know he would understand, but that's the thing, I really didn't start feeling this way up until a little bit before Ren and Nora picked me up. It's just now getting intense. It started happening out of no wh-" He suddenly stopped speaking when Sun had interrupted him.

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on. What the hell happened to your hand? Did someone.. bite you..?" Asked the monkey faunus as he had finally noticed the bite mark as well.

"Bite.." Neptune took a quick look at his hand, then he looked as if he had just remembered why it was there. "Oh yeah, that. W-Well actually.." He let out a deep sigh before giving off a weak chuckle. "That's a.. that's a pretty strange story actually.."

Sun lifted a eyebrow out of curiosity as he was all ears to hear out this so called 'pretty strange story.' "Okay, what happened then?"

Neptune could feel himself burning up and running short on breath all of a sudden, as can be noticed by how heavy and quickened his breathing was now. His sweat becoming profound by each second that went by. "well, while I was walking.. I-I decided to uh.. take a sh-shortcut through this a-alley.. and while I was walking through.. there was this asshole of a homeless guy th-that just.. p-popped out of from around a dumpster and just bit me.." Neptune said in fustration. "The guy was just out of i-it man.. h-his movements were.. sl-sluggish and he just looked disoriented.. So after I sh-shoved him off, I just bolted right out of there.." The blue haired boy than let out a weak groan of frustration as he ran his palms down his face. "Ah shit.. D-Dude probably has that flu that's going around now that I think about.."

Seeing as how his friend's condition was getting worst by each second that was passing by, Sun began to help him stand up after he was finished telling the weird tale. "Alright, well come on man. Let's get you to one of the bathrooms. I'm sure there's something in the medicine cabinet that can help relieve your sickness, I'll ask Ren if I can borrow his car to get you home. I don't think you should be out now that this has happened."

And seeing as how Neptune had no reason to object against this course of action, and that it was only right for himself to do so. He nodded as he began to get up as steadily as he can before the two started to move to leave the living room and head to the first floor bathroom that by the staircase. "Yeah, I guess th-that only makes sense.." He said weakly as he was beginning to shiver, which went unnoticed by the monkey faunus.

When the two got to the bathroom, Sun let the young Vasilias go inside alone, but not before saying something that help put his friend at ease. "Alright man, take all the time you need, if you need any help at all, don't be afraid to give me a holler."

Neptune held onto the door as he was prepared to close it. He weakly scoffed with an appreciative smile as he nodded at the monkey faunus. "Th-Thanks man, for sure." With that, he shut the bathroom door.

When that happened, Sun began to make his way over to the kitchen. Upon entering the room, Jaune was now getting out a handful paper plates that were stored in the pantry before bringing them over to the dining table placing them down by the pizzas, the box that was on top being open and still steaming hot pizza was visible. Everyone immediately giving compliments to the meal and to whoever the chef was before getting their individual plates and picking up a slice before sitting down on one of the chairs by the table.

When noticing Sun enter the kitchen/dining room area, the young Arc smiled as he gestured over towards the pizzas. "Hey, I was just about to come get you guys. Pizzas up!" He said with a chuckle as he looked back to the others at the table. "Try to save some guys, Blake and Weiss are still gonna need to eat when they get here." He advised as he looked back to Sun.

"Yeah, yeah, we know the drill." Yang said with a smirk and a roll of her eyes before she began to dig in on the meal in front of her. Chewing the bite she took for a few seconds before gulping it down. "Oh baby yes, that's the stuff.."

Jaune scoffed as he shook his head. He then suddenly looked confused when he noticed that Neptune was not with the monkey faunus. "Where's Neptune?" He asked curiously.

Sun sighed as he shook his head and shrugged with a bummed out look on his face while rubbing gently at the back of his head. "He's in the bathroom, think the guy has come down with the flu or something. So I was gonna try and give him a ride home after he's done in there." He said lowly.

Jaune frowned upon hearing this news, feeling guilty as he could not help but think that he had pushed himself into coming even though he was sick for him. That's not something he would want to do to his friend, to feel obligated to come over despite being ill. If he had known, he would not have let him and strongly advised him to stay home and rest. "But.. he looked like he was alright a few minutes ago.." He responded.

"Don't feel bad Jaune, he said he didn't start to feel sick until just before Nora and Ren picked him." Sun explained, and upon hearing him, Ren and Nora, who were sitting next to each other on one side of the table, looked confused as they gazed perplexed at each other for a brief moment before looking back at their monkey faunus.

"He didn't say anything when we picked him up. He looked fine and chipper when we did as a matter of fact." Ren commented as he shook his head in denial slightly.

Sun shrugged again. "Yeah, well don't feel at fault for not noticing guys, he said it just started intensifying now. You know how he can be, he always tries to toughen through things and keep his cool."

Jaune held onto his chin as he looked down the ground in thought. "He did say there was a flu going around." He uttered while in thought, then looking back up at Sun. "Did he say anything else?"

Sun nodded. "Yeah.. He told me that before he was picked up, he encountered some homeless guy in a alley he was cutting through as a shortcut, and the guy just jumped him and bit him before he pushed him off and dashed right out of there. It was crazy man, dude was out of it according to Neptune."

Upon hearing the brief story, everyone present in the room immediately stopped eating and looked at the monkey faunus in shock.

"He isn't bleeding or anything, is he?" Pyrrha questioned anxiously.

' _Well that explains the bite mark.._ ' Jaune immediately thought after hearing the story.

"Nope, I'm surprised he isn't though, the canine teeth broke past the skin a little bit from the looks of it. He's just lucky I suppose." He responded with a awkward chuckle. That answer had everyone feeling somewhat relieved, but still nervous that the event had occured.

"Thank goodness. At least we don't have to worry about that, huh?" Ruby said with a questioning to herself tone before she gulped and took a quiet sip of a drink she had beside her plate of pizza.

"Yeah, I guess so." Sun then looked to Ren. "So is it okay if I borrow your car so I can get him home, Ren?" He asked in a worried voice, the conversation having only made him more unsettled it seems.

Being the kind soul he was and not wanting his friends to have anything inconvience them if it can be avoided, Ren nodded without argument as he dug into his right pocket to fetch out his key before tossing it up at the monkey faunus. "Sure." Sun easily caught the car keys by his chest with ease as he flashed a grateful smile and a nod. "But I much rather prefer that you get him to the hospital to see if his mother can help him there."

"Thanks man, and yeah, that sounds like a plan." He then turned to Jaune in hopes of him passing on a message to a certain cat faunus for him. "You think you can tell Blake that I'll be back once all of this is sorted out if she gets here before me?"

Seeing no reason to decline, Jaune gave a small smile as he nodded in acceptance of the request. "Of course, you don't even need to ask."

With relief, Sun sighed before responding. "Alright, thanks man, and sorry for having to leave all of a sudden."

Jaune held his hand up by his chest as he shook his head briefly with closed eyes. "Hey, don't worry about it dude. It can't be helped. I prefer you do this anyway. It's only the right thing to do."

Sun nodded as he felt even more at ease now that he had no reason to feel guilty. "Alright." He then began to walk back as he looked over at Ren. "Thanks for this Ren. I promise I'll be careful." He said with a grin as he tossed the keys up slightly before swiping his hand to catch them again by his chest.

"No problem, I trust you." He said with a pleasant smile and nod before he, along with the girls resumed eating their slices of pizza in front of them.

After the monkey faunus had left the room, Jaune looked down to the ground with mix of curiosity, confusion.. and worry in his eyes. ' _Something really doesn't feel right about this situation.._ ' He pondered on that thought for a moment before shrugging it off and was thinking that he was just being too paranoid about the whole thing and began to get himself a pizza slice of his own with a smile on his face before going to sit down between Pyrrha and Yang on one side of the table, while Ruby, Nora and Ren sat across from them. The six now engaging in playful banter with one another while enjoying their meals.

When he had exited the kitchen, Sun walked back into the living room to fetch his cell phone that he had forgotten somewhere on the couch he was sitting on earlier, turning off the tv since no one was gonna be watching it. ' _No need to be raising his electric bill._ ' The blonde monkey faunus thought before putting the remote down, he then sighed a few seconds later as he could not see his phone anywhere on the couch or on the coffee table. He then began to dig his hands between the top of the cushion as he figured it must have fallen under those areas. He dug for a few seconds before he smiled when feeling the device and fishing it out after getting a grip on it. "There you are." He whispered to himself before he dusted off the screen as he began to make his way around the couch to head to the entrance of the house and wait for Neptune. But as he was about to leave the living room, he was stopped when he had bumped into Neptune at the entryway with a light 'oof' emitting from him. "Oh crap, sorry man, didn't pay attention to where I was going there." He uttered apologetically as he held his hands up by his chest in surrender for a moment before putting them down. "So, you ready to get going?" Immediately after he had asked that, the monkey faunus's eyes widened slowly in shock when noticing that once again, Neptune's appearance had changed. He then looked frightened as he let out a trembled gasp when processing the blue haired boy's current appearance. "Neptune.. dude, w.. what the hell happened to you now..?" He questioned in a perplexed state as now he began to walk backwards slowly due to the fear that only continued to rise the longer he looked at his friend's current appearance.

' _A couple minutes earlier_ '

Neptune groaned in pain as he stumbled forward by the bathroom sink and held his head tightly while looking down with a pained expression, the boy now able to stop hiding the true pain that he was feeling now that he was alone. "F-Fuck..! w-what the h-hell is going o-on.. with me..?!" He softly cried out as every part of his head was in absolute torment. "Th-This hurts so much..!" He whimpered as his legs trembled for a few seconds before he descended to lay on the ground and curled up while still gripping tightly at his head.

Though he could not see it, starting from the bite mark on his hand and looked like it was happening to the rest of his body judging by how it had travelled up to his other hand, neck and face, the blood in his veins began to go black and the veins began to bulge and throb. His skin beginning to turn into a deathly pale grey color also. He tried to keep his groans and his whimpers quiet as he shivered violently on the floor, his eyes were becoming even more bloodshot and were nearly bulging out of their sockets, his pupils were shrunken and shaking, and the color of them were transforming from blue to a crimson red and glowed upon the success of the change. Suddenly, he began to hear the soothing, mature voice of a woman talk to him within his own mind.

' _Ssh.. don't worry my child.. The pain will all be over shortly.. You shoud be grateful.. You have been chosen to be a.. citizen of the new era that is about to come upon the world of Remnant.. So accept your fate, Neptune Vasilias.. You, as well as millions of others across the globe.. should accept.. your destiny.. Now, it is time to rise up my children! and claim! what is ours!_ '

A look of horror appeared on his face as he looked at his wrists to see the changes begin to show up on the areas. ' _H-Help meeeeee!_ ' He cried in his thoughts.

' _One minute later_ '

"Neptune..? buddy..? W.. What's going on man..?" Sun uttered anxiously as he continued to step back away from the zombified Neptune, said zombified Neptune could be heard softly growling as he was walking forward towards Sun and his red glowing eyes were dead locked on the monkey faunus. "G-Gu-" Before Sun could call out urgently to the others in the kitchen, Neptune prevented him from doing so in a way that the Neptune he knew would never think of doing.

"Rrrragh!" The zombied Neptune growled loudly as it suddenly jumped forward at the monkey faunus, causing Sun to gasp in shock and raise his hands as a defensive action to grab at the wrists of his unexpected attacker.

Sun stumbled back as he strained when grabbing and struggling to hold back the wrists as Neptune applied surprisingly powerful force in his push against the blonde faunus. "W-What the hell Neptune?!" Sun exclaimed, then a second later he could be heard shouting in alarm when he, along with Neptune, flipped over the couch and crashed onto the glass table on the other side, breaking it completely upon impact.

When Sun's cry and the crashing and breaking of the table hit the ears of the group eating in the kitchen. They all gasped in surprise as their gazes steered over towards the entryway of the kitchen together, not able to see into the living room that was across from their angle.

"What was that?" Nora questioned as everyone looked at each other in confusion for a moment before quickly putting down their pizzas and rushing to stand up from the table and make their ways over to the living room.

"Sun? What's wrong?!" Jaune shouted as they were jogging out of the kitchen. When entering the living room and looking over to the other side of the couch. Everyone's eyes widened and gasped in shock at what they were seeing.

Sun continued to strain as he used his tail to hold back zombie Neptune's left wrist and his right hand came up to hold back its head as it tried to latch its decaying teeth onto his neck as he had his head turned away to avoid getting bit on the face, the undead Neptune nearing closer as it was slowly overpowering the monkey faunus when he began to lose his strength. When seeing his friends stand and watch on in a stunned state, he cried out to them to snap them out of it, which was a success in doing so. "I-I could use.. some h-help here!"

Jaune and Ren were the first ones to come back to their senses, both of them shaking his head before Jaune looked to Ren with a light sweat on his face. "Let's go Ren!" He uttered ugenty as he dashed to go around the couch.

"R-Right!" Ren responded as he nodded to the young Arc and he made his way around the opposite side of the couch, having a light sweat of his own break out on his forehead.

"Neptune, that's enough!" Yang cried out as her and the rest of the girls stood back.

"This isn't funny Neptune, st-stop!" Ruby cried out as she began to tear up due to the anxiety that began to overcome her just by watching the scene play out in front of her.

"Be careful Ren!" Nora cried out as she shivered in fear while looking at the black with pink haired boy, gulping as she had a hunch that this.. was not gonna end well.

Pyrrha looked on with a sickness rising in her stomach, biting her lip as her fists clenched at her sides. She was tempted to go and help out the boys.. but a part of her did not want to go and get involved with the tussle. Feeling she would also just be in the way.

Before Jaune and Ren could come up to grab onto each of the zombified Neptune's arms, they briefly halted as they felt a ache in their chests and appeared shock when the pained screams of Sun echoed throughout the Arc household, they were too late to save him from any pain the zombie may cause. Its right hand had broken out of the tail's grasp after breaking its strength and scratched down along the left side of the blonde faunus's face, peeling off his flesh, causing blood to shed and muscle to show.

The girls screamed and tensed up when witnessing the scene had turned gruesome before them.

"H-Help me please!" Sun cried out as he began to cry due to the immense pain of the attack. Once again, his cries causing Jaune and Ren to break out of their shock and rush to help him.

Jaune grabbed onto Neptune's right arm and pulled it back, while Ren did the same thing to its left arm. The zombie making them struggle a great deal as they had trouble pulling the arms back. "N.. Neptune..! W.. W-What the hell are you doing man..?!" The young Arc strained as he pulled his body weight back with full force, which hardly seemed like enough to deter the undead Neptune's assault.

The zombie then shot its head to look up at Jaune beside him with a gaze of pure fury and bloodlust in its crimson red eyes, when seeing the monstrous appearance of his friend, he gasped as he froze on the spot and anxiety struck at the entirety of his being, causing his strength to disappear in an instant.

Being weak now, it made it a lot more easier for the zombie to retaliate against Jaune's intrusion and with brute strength, it bumped its elbow against his gut and sent him flying over the couch and towards the entryway of the living room, the blonde boy grunting in pain and shouting out as he flew away. He nearly crashing into the girls as they shrieked before they barely were able to duck to avoid it in time. When flying over them, Jaune landed on the floor with a deafening thud and rolled a few feet out into the hallway, stopping at the bottom of the staircase that was out there on his front. He coughed for a few seconds before he groaned and lied there for a moment before he began to get up weakly on all fours.

"Jaune!" The girls exclaimed after they stood back up. Then Ruby, Yang and Pyrrha moved to help him up to his feet. Nora wanted to go help him up to, but Ren was still struggling to hold both of the zombie's arms now from behind him.. and she could not leave him unattended like that.

"Are you okay Jaune?! We're so sorry about that!" Ruby uttered anxiously as the girls kneeled by the young Arc, Yang and Pyrrha helping him by his arms after bringing the limbs over their shoulders. The blonde boy wincing and groaning weakly as he ascended, but nodding in response to the young Rose's worry spoken question and answering her.

"I-I'm fine, don't worry." Realizing that this was a situation that required.. desperate measures to be taken. Jaune flashed a determined expression as he recovered enough of his strength to stand and move on his own. "Wait here!" He ordered as he moved his arms off from the girls shoulders before he bolted up the staircase and disappeared from their sights shortly after.

"J-Jaune, where are you going?!" Pyrrha cried out when he sprinted off upstairs, shaking her head in confusion because of the sudden action.

"Neptune! That's enough my friend! Y-You're trying to hurt your best frie- Ah!" Ren then suddenly grunted in pain when the zombie Neptune had roughly bumped its back into Ren's front with brute force as well. The black with pink haired boy letting out a brief cry of pain and wincing as he was sent flying into the living room wall, causing a large dent in the wall upon impact and falling to the floor on his front. Being in the same painful predicament Jaune was in just a moment ago as he groaned and struggled to regain his strength to get back up, the surprise attack having forced all of the air out of his lungs, crashing into the wall was definitely no help.

"Ren!" Nora exclaimed as she ran over to her childhood friend's side in a panic, falling to her knees beside him and began to aid him in recovering.

Seeing as how there was no one to hold it back now, the zombified Neptune looked down at the wounded monkey faunus beneath it with hunger in its gaze and its lips curved into a wicked grin to show its rotting teeth. Sun looking up at his best friend, turned monster and attacker, with trembling wide eyes as he shakily whimpered while holding onto the bloody side of his face. "N-Neptune, pl-please don't do th-" Sun was not allowed to continue any further with his plead as the zombie then released a loud, predatory growl and shot its head down and quickly began to viciously feast on his neck when chomping its teeth down on his flesh.

This time, blood curdling screams began to emit from the monkey faunus that was loud enough to travel through the whole neighbourhood for everyone to hear. Vast amounts of thick red blood began to spray around both the undead Neptune and the crying blonde faunus.

The girls began to scream and cry out of pure fear and terror from what they seeing while they were also feeling sick to their stomachs, Ren looking up at the sight in tears with trembled gasps escaping.

Sun's screams then came to a stop a few seconds after he was being eaten.. and he was now a dead, and bloody body in the room that stared blankly at the ceiling above while still being feasted on. Then suddenly...

 _Bang!_

Everyone fell silent and the zombified Neptune ceased its bloody assault when the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the house. Everyone, both human and undead, looked over towards Jaune standing at the entryway with a struggling to stay brave look on his sweaty face and his Glock 17 pistol in his lightly shaking hands, the blonde boy having shot at the ceiling once to catch the zombie's attention before aiming the gun at it. "That's enough Neptune!" Jaune cried out as a warning, though he wanted nothing more than to vomit out the contents of his stomach after seeing the bloody murder scene, he continued to struggle to keep himself in control.

The girls and Ren remained silent as they looked at the zombie Neptune eyeing Jaune when it began to slowly rise back up to its feet, its tongue seen licking at its bloody decaying teeth as it grinned one of the most frightening grins any one of them had ever seem.

Jaune inhaled sharply as he knew what he was gonna be forced to do now judging by the creepy facial expression that was aimed at him. "Please man, don't make me fucking do this!" The blonde cried out as he tensed and put his right index finger on the trigger in preparation.

"Oh my god..! Suuun!" Ruby cried out in horror when seeing the current state of Sun's bloodied corpse, moving to hide behind Yang to help take her eyes off the sight.

"W.. What the hell.." Yang uttered in disbelief when she got a clear look at the undead Neptune features, the motion to vomit becoming all the more tempting when seeing it.

"W-Why does he look like that..?!" Pyrrha questioned in shock as she too could not avert her gaze off the zombie.

The zombie growled before releasing a vicious roar while looking at Jaune, causing those that were alive to wince when hearing the hoarse tone of the roar. It was now beginning to move to try and step up and jump over the couch at the blonde boy. "Rrrragh!"

Ren then gasped when knowing its intent as he looked to Jaune with urgency. "J-Jaune, you got to do it now!" He urged desperately.

"St-Stop this already!" Jaune pleaded as he began to shake more when the zombie boy had stepped over the top of the couch, but it tripped when it did and fell forward onto the ground. ' _Please Neptune, please stop!_ ' Jaune hoped in his thoughts, but felt pain his heart when the blue haired zombie began to get back up right after hitting the ground.

The girls near Jaune gasped and shrieked as they stepped back quickly when it tumbled over.

Jaune gritted his teeth as his bangs shadowed his eyes for a moment before he looked up with a intense look of frustration on his face when the undead Neptune got back on its feet and tried to dash at him. "GODDAMNIT NEPTUUUNE!" Jaune cried out as his finger pulled back on the trigger four times, causing the girls to scream, shut their eyes tightly and cover their ears when the shots echoed around them, the young Arc shouting out his frustration as he fired the first three shots at the chest, which caused the zombie to stop and its body to be forced to stumble to the couch by the force of the bullets when they impacted its chest.

The undead shivered as it looked down at its chest at the bullet holes while letting out a weak growl, then it looked up at Jaune, attempting to let out a even louder growl as it looked furious, but it was stopped when it suddenly shrieked and its head whipped back when the fourth bullet that was shot hit it dead center in the forehead, then brain matter shot out of the back on its head and its body fell back, rolling back over the couch before landing on the floor by the corpse Sun's feet on its front.

Everything was silent after the girls had stopped screaming, they hesitantly opened their eyes and pulled their hands away from their ears, now trembling at the sight of there now being two dead corpses present in the middle of the living room.

' _And well.. on with the show I guess.._ '

* * *

 **And there's another chapter for you all! One of the longest I've written. Yeah, I know, not all that impressive, Haha! Sorry I took awhile to update, Recently got a new job, and damn it is a crazy one. So I hardly had the time and energy to write, but don't worry, I'm not giving up! Updates just won't be as often as it used to be from me. Happy Thanksgiving to any of my fellow Canadians out there who happen to be following or just stumbled upon this story! I hope you're having a good one and enjoying your holiday! And also good day to everyone else! I know some details from the prologue are a little different in this chapter, but hey, it was just the prologue. And as for the sounds that the undead make.. If you ever played zombies in the Call of Duty: Black Ops games. Yeah, those sounds. XD Anyway, I hope it was a decent enough chapter for you guys to enjoy at least somewhat.**

 **To any of the concerns some of y'all may have, at least the ones that were pointed out in the reviews, yes, the rest of the Arc family will be present at some point in the story! Will anyone from RWBY or JNPR die? Nope! No one in the two main groups, or the harem will suffer in this story. well, at least they will not suffer when it comes to death anyway. Just throwing that out there now. So be warned. Ah, and I may do some crossing over of characters from a few different series for this story, just to create more temporary allies, enemies and other groups of survivors Jaune and the others may encounter. I hope that makes sense. XD**

 **The Harem:**

 **\- Ruby Rose**

 **\- Pyrrha Nikos**

 **\- Yang Xiao Long**

 **\- Neo**

 **\- Weiss Schnee**

 **\- Blake Belladonna**

 **\- Penny Polendina**

 **\- TBD**

 **\- TBD**

 **Alright, like I said in the last chapter, the maximum limit for the harem will be nine. So I'm still deciding on two other females to put in. I love Penny. XD So, I am glad with this pick. God, why does there have to be so much awesome ladies in this series? DX It's so hard to choose! Agh! Haha! Alrighty, all I got to say for now! Thanks for reading!**

 **Follow, Favourite, and Review if you would be so kind!**

 **Until next chapter, deuces!**


	3. Revelation

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its anything! It all belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum!**

 **Chapter 2: Revelation**

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At the dining table of the Arc household, Jaune and his friends, those who are still alive anyway, sat around in stunned silence. Their wide trembling eyes staring down at the table. Their bewildered minds still trying to process what had happened just a few minutes ago.

With a shocked Jaune, he had his Glock resting on the table in front of him. Its safety on and angled so that the barrel didn't point at him or his friends.

After what felt like ages, someone finally said something to break this damned silence..

"S-Seriously, you guys.. What the hell happened to Neptune over there?" Yang asked while pointing over to the living room, looking at the others as a cold sweat dripped down her face. Out of all the questions that swam wildly within her mind, that was the one that bugged her the most. It was the same for all the others.

"I-I think we're all trying to figure that out, Yang." Pyrrha responded.

"N-Neptune just.. to S-Sun and.. N-Now's he's de... d-d.." A petrified Ruby's whole figure quaked in fear, unable to get her next word out as she stuttered uncontrollably.

Upon seeing the young Rose struggle with her speech, Ren spoke up to put her at ease, sounding somewhat calm and unsettled at the same time as he captured her attention and she ceased her stuttering. "It's okay, Ruby. You... You don't need to say it.. We know what happened. So please, calm down and take some deep breaths." He instructed softly. "You don't have to put yourself through that stress.." He said lowly. "We're all stressing enough.." He whispered the last bit under a sigh.

"A-All right.." Was all Ruby could reply with as she shakily nodded and did as he said. With the plethora of negative emotions that currently filled the girl, it was a struggle to deeply breathe.

A sweating Nora gulped before finally saying something herself, but saying it hesitantly. "H-Hey guys.." She called out first while looking down at her thumbs that twiddled anxiously, immediately gaining the attention of most of her friends as they looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and panic. The only one that wasn't looking her way was Jaune as he just kept looking down at the gun he used to kill undead Neptune not ten minutes ago..

"What is it, Nora..?" Pyrrha acknowledged the orange-haired girl, her and the others expressing that they were all ears. Even if it didn't look like it, Jaune himself was listening in too.

"Th-This may be me just being.. well, crazy old me but..." Nora managed to take somewhat of a calm breath as she briefly closed her eyes while lowering her head, not wanting to say what she had in mind... But her gut just kept pressuring her. She raised her head and faced everyone again, displaying an uneasy smile. "Did N-Neptune kinda look like a... z-zombie to anyone else? Or is that just me?" She chuckled in an exaggerated fashion with nervousness as she rubbed at the back of her head.

Simultaneously, everyone, excluding Jaune, gasped in shock as they now looked at Nora with appalled expressions. They were all in utter disbelief that she would even say such an insane... yet sort of sensible thing..

"Z-Zombie..?" Ruby whispered with a horrified tone, her already overwhelming fear increasing tenfold.

"How can you even say such a thing, Nora?!" Ren scolded as he gave Nora a light glare, which earned him a wince from the orangette as she lowered her hand. Out of everyone, he was the most shocked to hear her say what she did. "Neptune was our friend. You shouldn't be saying outrageous things like that so out of blue." He said to his childhood friend firmly while maintaining his weak glare on her. The look made Nora frown as her heart stinged a little bit. This is the first she has ever seen him give anyone such an intimidating stare.. and she didn't like it one bit.

"Y-Yeah, come on, Nora. That's... heheh.. that's just crazy talk.." Yang spoke out with unease, stifling a chuckle. "Zombies, they don't... th-they don't exist. It's impossible for them to.. They only exist in movies and whatever.." The blonde said while in complete denial for the moment. She _really_ didn't want to believe the idea of Neptune being a.. a zombie. That's just freakin' nuts, right? Right?! But dammit, the more she thought about it, the more it started to make sense to her. Like, why else would Neptune just suddenly turn into something so.. so hideous and feral? Which are terms that pretty much describe a fucking zombie as far as she knows! Sun was his best friend... and he just killed him by biting a damn chunk out of the monkey faunus like it was nothing. Doing so without any hesitation or remorse. They all knew that Neptune cared a lot about those close to him and would never do anything to hurt them, just as they all do.. So why? Why else would he fucking do something as awful as that if he wasn't a damn zombie?! It's the only thing that made any goddamn sense in this fucked up situation! ' _Oh my god.._ ' She thought as terror became more apparent on her face.

"I got to agree with Ren there, Nora. That's... not exactly the most respectful thing to say about a friend." Pyrrha said as she looked at Nora with a frown of her own.

"Exactly." Ren confirmed.

"Perhaps it is just me being crazy then.." A now guilt stricken Nora admitted as she lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry, I'll.. I'll shut up." She sighed.

"Just be mindful of what you say next ti-" Before Ren could finish talking, Jaune cut him off when he spoke up.. and it was about time that he did too..

"I don't think she's wrong you guys.."

All eyes were on the young Arc, who currently looked deep in thought, in an instant as it was his turn to receive some surprised stares.

"What..?" Ren blinked in confusion at the blonde.

"Jaune, are you.. are you actually going to believe that?" Pyrrha inquired dumbfoundedly, unable to believe what she was hearing Jaune say. Same can be said for Ren.

"A zombie... Neptune.. r-really was a z-zombie.." The freaked out young Rose quivered as her hands came up to grip her head. Her dialated pupils trembled as she stared down at her lap. The gruesome images from earlier flashed in her mind as everything was starting to click for her too.

Yang couldn't even do anything to calm her little sister down as she was quaking in her clothes as well. Jaune's words having fueled her anxiety immensely. ' _D-Dammit Jaune! You're not helping here!_ ' She internally cried, running a hand back through her hair.

"Jaune.." Nora whispered under a breath, a bit relieved that someone actually supported her whackjob guess.

"Jaune, you can't possibly think that's the case too. Even you have to believe that that possibility is utterly insane." Commented Ren as he shook his head slightly in confusion.

After Ren spoke, that was when everyone emitted startled shrieks as they reeled slightly away from Jaune when he had suddenly slapped a hand down on the table and got up from his seat, getting up to pace back and forth by one end of the table while in a stressed state. "Yes, I know it sounds fucking insane, Ren! Believe me, I do!" Jaune proclaimed as he stopped his pacing and turned to face his friends, pressing a hand against his chest while the other stretched out beside him. "But just think about it for a sec! Like you said to Ruby, we all saw what happened! Which means we all saw what Neptune looked like _and_ what he fucking did to Sun! Hell, you saw him up close!" He pointed over to the direction of the living room where the bodies of Neptune and Sun still laid lifeless.. At least, they thought they were both still lifeless..

When Jaune began his loud rant, Sun's corpse, which now shared similar features to Neptune's own infected carcass, quietly growled at its eyes swiftly opened to reveal their blood red color..

"For godsakes, he bit out a piece of his flesh and chewed on it like it was the best damn meal he ever had! And judging by the look in his eyes when he turned to face me. He intended to make a meal out of me too!" Jaune pointed to himself as he was shakily panting at this point, gulping before he continued. "Now if that doesn't scream fucking zombie to any of us, than I don't know what the hell does!" He concluded his little rant at that as he proceeded to catch his breath, as well as his composure, while turning and moving to stand by the kitchen island, holding onto its edges as he faced down to the floor. His face had a light patch of sweat on it and his heart was pumping like crazy. "Fucking hell.." He huffed in relief, glad that he got some of his emotions out.

Once again, silence filled the room as the gang at the table simply looked at the panting Jaune with wide eyes. They have never seen him lose himself in such a way before, so they didn't know how else to react.. or what to say for that matter.

Managing to calm himself down a bit after a minute, Jaune steadied his breath as he turned to face the others with slight guilt. "I'm sorry, I.. I didn't mean to yell like that.. But really guys, whatever that thing is that took over Neptune's body... Unless you have any other idea of what it could be, I'm calling zombie as well.. It's just... too damn uncanny.." He declared as he pointed over to the kitchen entryway once more.

Just as he pointed, that was when Ruby let out a terrified scream as she was quick to get out of her seat and step away from the direction of his point.

The others gasped in alarm and quickly followed her lead as they all saw what had the young Rose so startled. They wanted to warn Jaune of what he was pointing at... But their voices wouldn't come out, no matter how hard they tried to push them.

Jaune looked perplexingly at them for a moment before turning his head to look at the entryway. "What's wrong, gu-oh, holy shit!" As soon as he saw it, his body slightly jumped on its own and faced the vile monster that had joined them in the kitchen.

Groaning as it limped its way into the kitchen, infected Sun glared at its potential meals as it licked its rotten lips with hunger in its eyes. Seeing as how Jaune was closer, it set its sights on him and quickly went on the hunt..

With his reflexes kicking in, Jaune swiftly reached behind his waist to pull out his Glock.. But he immediately began to panic more when he didn't feel it there at all. Then a second later, the truth hit him hard in the face as he sharply gasped and his heart stopped beating very shortly there. ' _Crap!_ ' Looking towards the dining table, he saw his gun still resting where he had placed it down earlier..

"Jaune, watch out!" Pyrrha, Yang, Ruby, Nora and Ren cried out to the blonde boy urgently, breaking him out of his stupor.

The next thing Jaune knew after he had looked back to the undead Sun, he was forced onto the floor on his back, letting out a pained groan as his head hit the ground, when the monkey faunus had suddenly leaped forward at him and mounted his waist. The whole motion caused the girls to scream in alarm.

Now that it had its meal dazed for the moment, the attacking corpse assured that it had the upper hand as it pushed Jaune's arms back to the floor when grabbing onto his wrists. Holding them tightly with one of its hands and its tail.

The young Arc tried his damnest to get out of this predicament, but holy hell this thing was strong as his arms couldn't even budge from the corpse's grasp. After a couple seconds of pointless struggling, Jaune grunted in pain as his body ceased function when Sun had suddenly grabbed his head and forcefully turned it slowly so he looked off to the side, exposing Jaune's now vulnerable neck to its gaze.

"Sun! Stop..! Please..! Don't.. do this..!" Jaune groaned with a strained voice as he winced, trying to turn his head back forward but he couldn't beat the undead's incredible strength.

Licking its lips as it gazed at Jaune's neck excitedly, the zombie faunus growled as it readied its teeth... and lunged its head down onto the blonde boy's own.

Jaune gasped and just about shut his eyes to prepare for his seemingly inevitable end..

"Sun, no!"

It wouldn't come however as Ren had come to his rescue in just the nick of time..

Having quickly grabbed a rolling pin that happened to be lying on the kitchen island, Ren came up to his friend and the walking corpse and didn't hesitate to slam the wooden object down on its head as hard as he can. With how hard he brought it down, over half of the pin had broken off when coming into contact with the faunus' head, scattering the broken pieces on the floor around them. Conveniently, a sharp piece large enough to fit in a palm had dropped by Jaune's left hand.

Shrieking in surprise when it was hit, zombie Sun ceased its head movement before it could bite Jaune and slowly looked up at Ren with a scowl. Its red eyes glowed as anger now blazed within them, not appreciating Ren for bothering it when it's trying to feast. It now had a different target to eat first, which is why it let go of Jaune's wrists. But before it could leap at Ren..

' _Forgive me, Sun!_ '

Immediately seeing his opportunity to fight back, Jaune grabbed onto the chunk of wood tightly when he spotted it and launched it straight into the walking corpse's neck, shouting as he did the violent deed.

A sharp gasp emitted from every living person in the area as they saw the zombie tense up and its eyes widen when Jaune's attack landed successfully, a startled growl escaping it as blood shot out of the area where it was stabbed.

"Just like Neptune! You made me do this, Sun!" Jaune screamed as he took advantage of its current state, easily flipping the both of them over to switch their positions now that it was weakened for the moment. "I'm sorry!" He cried as he shedded some tears, not wanting to put down one he called a friend... again. But he had no choice, and he knew that.

Just what the fuck is going on around here?!

The last thing the undead saw before going lights out was the frustrated Arc lifting the piece of wood over his head and thrusting it down on its throat once more.. then again... and again... and again..

The crying blonde refused to stop his assault until he was certain that _it_ was dead..

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 **A/N: **Heheh.. How's it going followers of this fic, been awhile hasn't it? About.. shit, almost a year. I apologize for how long it took me to update this. I got absolutely no organized schedule when it come to my stories, I really just update what I feel like updating. I know, I'm a mess. But I am gonna be working on fixing up a schedule for myself as I feel I need it now. Nowadays, with the amount of stories that I have up, I've become a mess on what to work on and I just end up frying my brain most of the time. Yeah, I don't what's wrong with me either. Lol So putting effort into grounding myself, I'll be going in a cycle of updating each story. So I can focus on one at a time rather than a lot at a time. Should've done this _much_ sooner, I know. But like I said, I'm a _big_ fucking mess. And I know that's it's my fault for letting things get out of hand. So yeah, hopefully you won't have to be waiting months for updates from this point onwards. I'll try not to let that happen again. Keyword, try. Also, chapters won't be as long as the first two were as writing long chapters just stresses me out too much. Yeah, it's pathetic. I won't disagree. But it works out better for me poor brain. XD Meh, Who knows, maybe I'll make a long chapter here and there. It really depends on how I'm feeling at the time.

Okay, with all that out of the way, onto zeh updated harem!

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 **The Harem!**

 **\- Ruby Rose**

 **\- Yang Xiao Long**

 **\- Weiss Schnee**

 **\- Blake Belladonna**

 **\- Pyrrha Nikos**

 **\- Neopolitan**

 **\- Penny Polendina**

 **\- Cinder Fall**

 **\- Glynda Goodwitch**

 **A/N:** Now, I honestly don't think this'll be the final list as I'm currently contemplating on adding just a teeny bit more ladies. The friggin' ideas keep flooding in that I'm just so tempted to do so. XD I don't know, I'm really gonna have to think on this one. So much for trying to limit myself. Lol

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Alrighty, that's all I got to say for now. Thank you all for having hope in this story and not giving up on it. It isn't abandoned, I assure you. If it was, this story wouldn't even be up anymore. So again, thank you. Now, I hope that you at least somewhat enjoyed this update and look forward for what's to come! Have a good one guys!

 **Follow, Favourite and Review if you would be so kind! It is always greatly appreciated to know what you guys think of the story so far!**

 **Until next chapter, deuces!**


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